TikTok, the popular video app, is facing a billion-pound class-action lawsuit over its processing of children's information inside the United Kingdom and European Union. The legal claim has been brought against TikTok and parent company ByteDance Ltd. by former Children's Commissioner for England Anne Longfield.
TikTok and ByteDance Ltd. have been caught in various controversies over data gathering in the last few years. In recent memory, TikTok's Musical.ly received a $5.7 million fine by the United States Federal Trade Commission for that app's handling of children's data. The claim was filed in the High Court of England and Wales in December of 2020 and is currently in a holding pattern pending the outcome of the Lloyd v Google case.
This lawsuit claims that the app is in violation of UK and EU child protection law and does not have consent to take and process children's data. On top of this, the lawsuit claims that the data is being gathered without sufficient warning as well. Longfield is supporting a claim made by law firm Scott + Scott that wants TikTok to delete children's information it has gathered from UK and EU users and pay compensation as well. Details contained within the alleged gathered information include children's phone numbers, videos, pictures, and location and, if the case is successful, these child users could be entitled to thousands of pounds.
According to the lawsuit, every child user within the United Kingdom and European Union that has used the app since May 25, 2018 has been affected by this data gathering. The claimants put the number of affected children at around 3.5 million in the United Kingdom. The core of the case hinges on the argument that TikTok has failed to be transparent about the extent to which it gathers children's data and why it has been gathered.
Whether or not the case leads to another TikTok fine or reveals the company's lack of guilt, it seems unlikely it will greatly affect the app's popularity. It has reached over 2 billion downloads worldwide and has reported 800 million monthly active users worldwide as of July 2020. What makes these numbers especially noteworthy is the fact that the app has only been around for four years.
But the international lawsuits and bans must have had some effect on the company's bottom line. It seems unlikely that the waves of bad press for TikTok would have had no impact and perhaps it is only a matter of time before the TikTok trend begins to slow its pace. For now, the case awaits the results of Lloyd v Google before the matter can be settled and its impact measured.
Source: TikTok Data Claim UK